CVE-2021-47408: Vulnerability in Linux Linux

Severity: mediumType: vulnerabilityCVE-2021-47408

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: conntrack: serialize hash resizes and cleanups Syzbot was able to trigger the following warning [1] No repro found by syzbot yet but I was able to trigger similar issue by having 2 scripts running in parallel, changing conntrack hash sizes, and: for j in `seq 1 1000` ; do unshare -n /bin/true >/dev/null ; done It would take more than 5 minutes for net_namespace structures to be cleaned up. This is because nf_ct_iterate_cleanup() has to restart everytime a resize happened. By adding a mutex, we can serialize hash resizes and cleanups and also make get_next_corpse() faster by skipping over empty buckets. Even without resizes in the picture, this patch considerably speeds up network namespace dismantles. [1] INFO: task syz-executor.0:8312 can't die for more than 144 seconds. task:syz-executor.0 state:R running task stack:25672 pid: 8312 ppid: 6573 flags:0x00004006 Call Trace: context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:4955 [inline] __schedule+0x940/0x26f0 kernel/sched/core.c:6236 preempt_schedule_common+0x45/0xc0 kernel/sched/core.c:6408 preempt_schedule_thunk+0x16/0x18 arch/x86/entry/thunk_64.S:35 __local_bh_enable_ip+0x109/0x120 kernel/softirq.c:390 local_bh_enable include/linux/bottom_half.h:32 [inline] get_next_corpse net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c:2252 [inline] nf_ct_iterate_cleanup+0x15a/0x450 net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c:2275 nf_conntrack_cleanup_net_list+0x14c/0x4f0 net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c:2469 ops_exit_list+0x10d/0x160 net/core/net_namespace.c:171 setup_net+0x639/0xa30 net/core/net_namespace.c:349 copy_net_ns+0x319/0x760 net/core/net_namespace.c:470 create_new_namespaces+0x3f6/0xb20 kernel/nsproxy.c:110 unshare_nsproxy_namespaces+0xc1/0x1f0 kernel/nsproxy.c:226 ksys_unshare+0x445/0x920 kernel/fork.c:3128 __do_sys_unshare kernel/fork.c:3202 [inline] __se_sys_unshare kernel/fork.c:3200 [inline] __x64_sys_unshare+0x2d/0x40 kernel/fork.c:3200 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x35/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae RIP: 0033:0x7f63da68e739 RSP: 002b:00007f63d7c05188 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000110 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f63da792f80 RCX: 00007f63da68e739 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000040000000 RBP: 00007f63da6e8cc4 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00007f63da792f80 R13: 00007fff50b75d3f R14: 00007f63d7c05300 R15: 0000000000022000 Showing all locks held in the system: 1 lock held by khungtaskd/27: #0: ffffffff8b980020 (rcu_read_lock){....}-{1:2}, at: debug_show_all_locks+0x53/0x260 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:6446 2 locks held by kworker/u4:2/153: #0: ffff888010c69138 ((wq_completion)events_unbound){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: arch_atomic64_set arch/x86/include/asm/atomic64_64.h:34 [inline] #0: ffff888010c69138 ((wq_completion)events_unbound){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: arch_atomic_long_set include/linux/atomic/atomic-long.h:41 [inline] #0: ffff888010c69138 ((wq_completion)events_unbound){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: atomic_long_set include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:1198 [inline] #0: ffff888010c69138 ((wq_completion)events_unbound){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: set_work_data kernel/workqueue.c:634 [inline] #0: ffff888010c69138 ((wq_completion)events_unbound){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: set_work_pool_and_clear_pending kernel/workqueue.c:661 [inline] #0: ffff888010c69138 ((wq_completion)events_unbound){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: process_one_work+0x896/0x1690 kernel/workqueue.c:2268 #1: ffffc9000140fdb0 ((kfence_timer).work){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: process_one_work+0x8ca/0x1690 kernel/workqueue.c:2272 1 lock held by systemd-udevd/2970: 1 lock held by in:imklog/6258: #0: ffff88807f970ff0 (&f->f_pos_lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: __fdget_pos+0xe9/0x100 fs/file.c:990 3 locks held by kworker/1:6/8158: 1 lock held by syz-executor.0/8312: 2 locks held by kworker/u4:13/9320: 1 lock held by ---truncated---

AI Analysis

Technical Summary

CVE-2021-47408 is a vulnerability in the Linux kernel's netfilter connection tracking subsystem (conntrack). The issue arises from the lack of serialization between hash table resizes and cleanup operations within the conntrack code. Specifically, when multiple scripts or processes concurrently modify the conntrack hash sizes, the cleanup function nf_ct_iterate_cleanup() must restart its iteration each time a resize occurs, causing significant delays in network namespace dismantling. This was observed in scenarios where parallel scripts altered conntrack hash sizes and executed numerous unshare operations, leading to cleanup times exceeding five minutes. The root cause is that without proper locking, concurrent resizes and cleanups interfere, causing inefficiencies and potential resource exhaustion. The patch introduced a mutex to serialize these operations, preventing concurrent resizes and cleanups, and optimized the get_next_corpse() function to skip empty buckets, thereby improving performance even when no resizes occur. The vulnerability does not directly expose confidentiality or integrity risks but impacts availability by causing prolonged cleanup times and potential system resource exhaustion. The CVSS score is 4.7 (medium severity), reflecting a local attack vector requiring low privileges and high attack complexity, with no user interaction needed. No known exploits are reported in the wild. The vulnerability affects Linux kernel versions identified by specific commit hashes, indicating it is relevant to systems running affected kernel versions prior to patching.

Potential Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability primarily impacts the availability and performance of Linux-based systems that utilize netfilter conntrack, especially those employing network namespaces extensively, such as containerized environments, virtualized infrastructures, and multi-tenant platforms. Prolonged cleanup times can lead to resource exhaustion, degraded network performance, and potential denial of service conditions in critical infrastructure, cloud services, and enterprise networks. Organizations relying on Linux servers for networking, firewalling, or container orchestration may experience operational disruptions. Although the vulnerability requires local access and low privileges, it could be exploited by malicious insiders or compromised accounts to degrade system performance. The impact is more pronounced in environments with high concurrency and dynamic network namespace usage, common in modern cloud-native deployments prevalent across European data centers and enterprises.

Mitigation Recommendations

European organizations should apply the official Linux kernel patches that serialize conntrack hash resizes and cleanups to eliminate the race condition and performance degradation. System administrators should: 1) Identify and upgrade affected Linux kernel versions to patched releases as soon as possible. 2) Monitor systems for unusual delays or resource exhaustion related to network namespace operations. 3) Limit unnecessary concurrent modifications to conntrack hash sizes and avoid running parallel scripts that alter network namespaces without coordination. 4) Employ kernel hardening and access controls to restrict local user privileges, minimizing the risk of exploitation by low-privilege users. 5) In containerized environments, optimize container lifecycle management to reduce excessive namespace creation and destruction. 6) Incorporate this vulnerability into vulnerability management and incident response plans to ensure timely detection and remediation.